CCC goes 3-1 in Jayhawk Duals

PRATT— The 15th-ranked Cloud County wrestling team "turned a corner" over the weekend at the inaugural Jayhawk Duals, hosted by Pratt Community College, as the T-Birds finished 3-1 during the two-day event en route to a fourth-place overall finish.
All KJCCC programs competed in three separate dual nights throughout the regular season. Friday and Saturday served as the finals, pinning teams against the remaining four opponents they had yet to face to decide the overall conference champion.
Third-ranked Northwest Kansas Technical College, which went undefeated in its previous three KJCCC duals prior to the weekend would go on to win the event while 22nd-ranked Barton, Cowley College and Cloud County rounded out the top four.
"I think the guys showed a lot more heart and battled more than maybe we have all year long," said Cloud County head coach, Cody Cole. "It was good to see. We really wanted to win that last dual against Cowley, it just didn't go our way. But I think we're turning the corner and heading in the right direction as we head into the postseason stretch."
The Thunderbirds, wrestling with open weights at 157-pounds and 174-pounds, opened the Jayhawk Duals with a pair of wins on Friday over hosts Pratt and Neosho County Community College.
Cloud County held on for a 28-20 win over the Beavers in its first dual before winning six of the eight matches wrestled in a 31-21 victory over the Panthers.
On Day Two, the T-Birds opened action Saturday with a 25-19 victory over Labette Community College, again winning six of the eight weight classes, before dropping a tough 25-21 final to Cowley College in the finale.
"Against Labette, everyone did a great job of winning and getting bonus points when they were available to help us make up the 12-point difference. But in the Cowley dual, it was just hard to give up 12 points and come back," Cole said. "Everyone who wrestled did their jobs. To be down 12 and to only lose by three at the end, it spoke a lot to how tough we were mentally to claw our way back in that dual."
Sophomore heavyweight Benny Hernandez, who posted a 3-1 showing over the weekend, nearly helped Cloud County to an undefeated weekend, but an early takedown proved to be the difference in a tough 6-3 decision loss to Cowley's Kolvin Berry that sealed the 25-21 dual final.
"We gave up an early takedown that we just couldn't come back from," Cole said. "Benny did his best to chip away (at the deficit) and put himself in a position to win, but we just couldn't score in the last couple seconds."
The T-Birds walked away Saturday with plenty of positives, though, as redshirt freshman Austin Eldredge ballooned his overall record to 18-1 following a 4-0 showing, while sophomore Cameron Young-Leggett (184) and freshman No. 4 ranked Dakota Miller (133) also went undefeated out in Pratt.
"It was really good to see that from Cameron. He opened up and had a lot offense going on, rode people well," Cole said. "And Dakota's weekend was huge after that loss to Northwest Kansas Tech on Wednesday. It was impressive for him to come out here and go 3-0, open up and wrestle as well as he did."
Freshman 125-pounder Blayne Harris and redshirt freshman Zach Bowen (197) also had solid weekends for the T-Birds and both wrestlers finished 2-2 overall.
Cole also praised the efforts from freshman Albert Werden and redshirt sophomore Noah Aziere, who each picked up important victories wrestling up in weight classes.
Werden edged out a crucial 5-4 decision win against Labette's Raul Ayala, while Aziere kept Cloud County alive in its bout against Cowley with a pin of Bryce Shults in 6:50 at 174-pounds.
Overall, Cole said he was pleased with how Cloud County performed and with the addition of the Jayhawk Duals event this season.
"I think it's a really cool event. I think it gives us a chance late in the year to see where we're at in our region and also creates something that people want to wrestle for," Cole said. "It was really exciting to be somewhere with all the teams competing for that title. I'd love to see it stay around because it's the perfect event for our conference."
The T-Birds will now turn their attention toward their final dual of the season, a road matchup against Nebraska Wesleyan University at 8 p.m. Thursday.
It'll be the final competition for Cloud County before it begins postseason action on February 16 with the West-Central District Tournament, hosted in Parsons, Kansas.
"Thursday will be a good tune-up for the district tournament. We just need to go out and wrestle, up and get our offense going and get a really good feel for what we need to hit on in the district tournament as far as moves," Cole said. "I'd really like to see everyone wrestle out there before I think two weeks off can be kind of dangerous because you get stagnant. I think it's important we wrestle another team before districts to stay fresh."